Notebook crapped out, now what...

[KP]

So my Compaq Presario just acted like a tv getting bad reception and then went to black. Warranty is expired. Having someone look at it - probably, just a video card issue, had that issue with first notebook.

BUT

If the **** hits the fan and the notebook is toast, what should I get? Basically all I use it for is the web, file stories, itunes and store sound bites from my recorder.

 

[BYH]

Get a Mac. Blow up the PC.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

I love my iBook.

 

[Crimson Tide]

I had a Compaq back in the early 2000s. Piece of ****. After the fourth repair in 2001, I realized I could have bought a new computer. I took a sledgehammer to the *******.

I got an iMac.

Now, I love my MacBook.

 

[Football_Bat]

****abuncha Microsoft. I'm a Mac daddy.

 

[farmerjerome]

I've been going through this for the past three years with my Dell.

I really, really want to get a Mac. But I have a Dell credit card, and I might have to go that route.

 

[Del_B_Vista]

I'm a recent Mac convert with a new MacBook. So far, so good.

 

[HoopsMcCann]

mac

 

[Drock]

I'm a recent Mac convert with a new MacBook. So far, so good.

Same here. Love my MacBook.

 

[Del_B_Vista]

Bottom line, you can buy a new Dell computer once a year and not spend as much in four years as you'd spend on a comparable Mac. By which time (or half as much time) the Mac, and the PCs, will be obsolete and you'll need a new one anyway.

So I could buy four Dell laptops for the $1,500 bucks I spent for the MacBook? Will Dell give me a free iPod, too?

 

[Beef03]

I've never used an iBook, but I do know that the eMac computers that we use at work are pieces of ****. Never crash? what a load of ****. I'm probably restartin three times a day because the ****er crashes. And the keyboard does this really annoying thing where when pressing a key once it will give five or six of that letter, so I'll end up with sentences like this: Thiiiiiiiiis compuuuuuuttteeeeer is aaaaa piiiiece offffff shhhhhiiiiiiittt. doesn't do it all the time, but for some reason has a knack for it on deadline. Takes three times as long to write a story as normal because I'm going back and deleting all the extra letters.
For these reasons a lone, and the cost, I will never buy a mac. Oh and Compaq lap tops are pieces of **** too, I am the unhappy owner of one myself.

 

[Drock]

I love how the Mac people come out of the woodwork at times like these. People sure seem to like them, and they sure don't seem to have any problems. Perhaps that's because most of the people who own them have already posted on this thread.

Bottom line, you can buy a new Dell computer once a year and not spend as much in four years as you'd spend on a comparable Mac. By which time (or half as much time) the Mac, and the PCs, will be obsolete and you'll need a new one anyway.

Has Mac added the all-important right-click function yet? That alone makes PCs superior.

Either way, this thread serves as a reminder: Back up your hard drives (and cell phones, while you're at it), because all this stuff dies eventually.

I spent a little over $1,200 on my MacBook and it has everything I could possibly need -- and a bunch of stuff I'll never use. I can right click all I want when I plug in my mouse, which I use at home and on the road.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

KP, I may have some good news for you. My laptop did the same thing a few months back. Turns out all I needed was a new ribbon-like thing for the monitor. Go to a computer guy you know and he can get a new one off ebay for a easily less than 50 bucks, I want to say I paid either 15 or 35 for mine but I don't recall exactly, and then the biggest cost is just the labor. Since I got the new ribbon I haven't had a single problem. And in the meantime, if your computer guy just does a little adjusting to it (literally just touching that little ribbon a bit, pulling it, whatever, just moving it a tad, seriously) may be a temporary fix that lasts another month or two. You'll still need the ribbon eventually, but it might help. That's what it did for me the first time I had a problem, though when that wore off it didn't want to respond again.

Oh, and mine was a compaq too.

 

[Drock]

I don't know when the changes were made. For $1,200, though, the MacBook I have is a pretty damn good bargain.

 

[dog428]

OK, I've read through at least a dozen of these threads on laptops over the past few months. I'm in the market for a new laptop, but I'm not pressed to make a quick purchase. I just want a better one.

So, here's the chance for all you Mac folks to sell me. I've never used one, at least not seriously attempted to do work on one. The mac that closest compares with the notebooks I've been checking out is at least $400 more expensive.

Why should I consider spending more money for a machine that I'm gonna have to spend some time figuring out how to use? Are they really that much better?

 

[Jim Halpert]

Not to rain on the MacBook parade, but mine recently started shutting down randomly from time to time. Looking around on the Apple website, it seems like a common problem that a lot of people have been experiencing after a few months of use.

Other than the random shut downs for no reason at all, the Mac has been great.

As far as the right-click function goes, I think you've always been able to right-click if you plug a two button mouse into the machine. All Mac desktops still come with the one button mouse (I think) and the laptops only have one button on the trackpad thing, but if you plug a two-button mouse in, it works fine.

 

[Angola!]

OK, I've read through at least a dozen of these threads on laptops over the past few months. I'm in the market for a new laptop, but I'm not pressed to make a quick purchase. I just want a better one.

So, here's the chance for all you Mac folks to sell me. I've never used one, at least not seriously attempted to do work on one. The mac that closest compares with the notebooks I've been checking out is at least $400 more expensive.

Why should I consider spending more money for a machine that I'm gonna have to spend some time figuring out how to use? Are they really that much better?

My old shop used Macs and I hated them. They crashed at least three times a night and it didn't matter when we got the brand new G5s, they still sucked. I am very wary of Macs, but maybe it was just our piece of **** tech guys, I don't know.

 

[Crimson Tide]

The major hardware fault of Apple is that insists to produce the same ****ty mouse that people obviously don't want. You can right-click with a Mac as long as you don't use the mouse they provide, rather a third-party mouse. However, on my MacBook, I can "right-click" by tapping with two fingers. Works great.

But I justify shelling out more money for the hardware. I bought the iMac in 2001, and sold it last year to my paper to put in one of the sister-weeklies. Things still works fine (as long as it's OS X and not that piece of **** OS 9). By the time I'm ready for a new laptop, they'll probably run on flash drives (like iPods) and will be about two-generations into the product.

 

[HoopsMcCann]

right click? don't need it. don't miss it

 

[Better_Off_Red]

I do know that the eMac computers that we use at work are pieces of ****.

eMacs suck. Totally. Don't hate on Mercedes because you had a bad experience with that goofy, $22,000 hatchback it sold in the late 1990s.

Macs rarely crash, the new intel machines are smokin fast, the OS is highly intuitive, support is easier because the method for fixing problems is more uniform, doing things like making CDs or DVDs is easier, Applecare > any other warranty plan, resale is better (I just sold a BROKEN 1999 powerbook for $350) ... and that's in addition to MacBooks looking cooler than anything else around.